Never So Clear, the Sky
by Fairady
Summary: Shikamaru's favorite spot to watch clouds from has been invaded. [Shikamaru x Shino]
1. Annoyance

Disclaimer: I neither own nor claim these characters or series. They're Kishimoto's, I'm just kidnapping 'em for a bit. 

Warnings: Heh, none. Slight shounen-ai if you want to acknowledge it. For now.

Notes: I have a problem. I love writing to flesh out all these wonderful ideas I get. But usually the characters will refuse to coperate with me. Like in Naruto. All these wonderful characters and the only ones who'll play with me are the Suna siblings.

So, I tried writing a yaoi fic with Shikamaru and Kiba. Shikamaru wasn't any problem. He just sighed and told me I was annoying. Kiba was the problem. Soon as he spotted me he took off at a dead run, and damn can that boy run. I gave the chase up for good after the first block. Unfortunately Kiba's also loud, so by that time everyone else had been alerted to my presence and weren't going to come out. I thought I'd have to scrap the fic. Imagine my surprise when I found someone who didn't run...

Never so Clear, the Sky

* * *

It was getting really annoying. Shikamaru's favorite place to watch clouds had been invaded. Again.

He came to this roof because it always gave him a nice clear view of the sky, and wasn't usually used by anyone else. It was a place where he could be alone and not have to deal with others. The fact that it was rotting and had more holes than not had pretty much guaranteed there was no one below to object to his presence. He'd never thought this particular roof top would interest anyone else. Which made the fact that he'd been sharing it for the past several weeks more than a little annoying.

Though he supposed there were worse people to share a rooftop with, didn't mean there weren't better people just that he could have a worse companion. Like Naruto or Kiba. Now there were a couple he never wanted to be alone with for long. Neither of them had the attention span neccessary to sit still for longer than five seconds. Either one of them would have bounced around the roof finding every weakend spot and crashing through it. All while screaming at the top of their lungs the whole time.

Shikamaru sighed, they were so tiresome sometimes. No, not really. It was more like all the time.

If he had to pick someone to share a roof top with he'd have chosen Chouji. Chouji understood him and knew when all he wanted to do was lay back and not do anything. Or when he wanted to talk idly about nothing. Chouji would also bring plenty of snacks for them to eat, that way if they got hungry they wouldn't have to get up to get food.

All in all his current companion wouldn't be his first choice, but also not his last.

Shino gently pried up a rotting shingle unmindful of the various bugs that scuttled out, startled at the sudden light. He'd shown up as usual with a brief nod to Shikamaru before sitting on one of the few stable spots on the roof. It was two feet up and to the left of the spot Shikamaru favored, and he was begining to think of it as Shino's spot.

And that bothered him more than anything else.

Shino never said anything to Shikamaru. Never did anything that would disturb him from his cloud watching. Shino never did much of anything at all except gather a few bugs that wandered towards him. He would simply sit and stare at nothing. Surprisingly this grated on Shikamaru's nerves worse than any amount of shouting and jumping Kiba and Naruto could have done.

It was impossible for him to lay back and relax the way he wanted to with Shino around. Instead of watching the sky and thinking of nothing Shikamaru found himself thinking of the other and why the hell he was there. Wondering why his silence was so annoying, especially when there were others more annoying, which led him to wonder why it was worse.

He couldn't quite figure out why, so he usually just gave up thinking about it and tried to clear his mind of all thoughts. But it was so hard to do when his favorite place had been invaded by Shino. It was a circular thought that kept his mind running in circles.

Shikamaru yawned and sat up. He would get no rest until he did something about this, as it was quite obvious after a few weeks that Shino had no plans of leaving him alone. Which didn't worry him as much as it should. Shino might be odd and more than a bit creepy, but he was also one of the most intelligent people he knew. Shino had a reason to be there and, whatever it might be, it wasn't anything to do with malice. If it was he would have stated it from the begining.

And Shikamaru was in danger of spending the rest of the day trying to think of the hundreds of motives Shino could have for being there. Shikamaru could spend all day thinking, had been doing so for the last two weeks, instead of doing something productive. Like asking Shino why the hell he was there.

Which was exactly what he was going to do. It galled him a little to ask instead of figuring it out on his own, but he simply had too many ideas and not enough info on Shino to rule any out. There really was no helping it, "Shino, why the hell are you here?"

It seemed kind of sad that those were the first words spoken between them for nearly two months. Especially since they saw each other every day.

"I'm watching," Shino answered simply.

That didn't really help Shikamaru much. He obviously wasn't there to watch the sky, hadn't looked up once besides the one day it had started raining. There was nothing to either side of the roof but the blank walls of buildings, and it was unlikely he had eyes in the back of his head. There wasn't anything of particular interest to watch to the front. Unless Shino found the board advertising for a shop long closed fascinating. And while the patterns the cracking paint formed were kind of interesting to look at Shikamaru didn't think that was it either.

The air around Shino made it seem that he wasn't looking at anything in particular, which meant whatever he was watching was on this roof. Which only left Shikamaru and a thankfully unidentified number of bugs. So the question had helped him narrow down his list. Somewhat.

"Why?" another question might help.

"Because I like to," another brief and simple answer. There was a reason why very few people knew anything about Shino.

The answer did help narrow down his list quite a bit. Shikamaru had thought of many reasons why Shino might be watching whatever he was watching. Now the most important question to ask would be what was Shino watching? The bugs or Shikamaru?

Shikamaru stretched back out on the roof. Did Shino come here every day because the rotting roof drew interesting insects to it? If so, did that mean it was Shikamaru who was the intruder? Or did Shino only come when he knew Shikamaru would be there? What about him would fascinate Shino enough to spend that much time watching him?

He could ask another question and have the whole mess over with, but before he did that he had one question he needed to answer himself. Did he really want to know the answer?

"Be carefull what you wish," Shikamaru snorted under his breath. You just might get it.

He'd thought his thoughts from before were bad enough. Now he had more to think about, and it didn't look like Shino was going to let him forget about it any time soon.

It was so annoying.

* * *

Fairady:...you...chokes

Shino:raises an eyebrow

Fairady: Why won't you talk!

Shino: shrugs carlessly

Fairady: screams in frustration


	2. Irritation

Disclaimer: I neither own nor claim these characters or series. They're Kishimoto's, I'm just kidnapping 'em for a bit. 

Warnings: More internal Shikamaru thought. More implied shounen-ai. Don't like? Then don't read. It's pretty simple people.

Notes: Finally, the second part is finished! Never thought I'd get this done. Thanks to the Narutobetas LJ community for betaing.

Never so clear, the sky  
by fairady

* * *

Shikamaru was having a horrible day. No, a horrible week, or maybe it was just his life.

He'd spent the past week playing bodyguard to a local lord and his four children. The lord had been an overbearingly arrogant ass who'd kept mentioning how his family was descended from 'The Hokage.' Any questions of which Hokage only got a blank look and 'The Hokage' was repeated. After watching the older man throw an all out hissy fit when Shikamaru beat him at a horrible game of shougi he began to appreciate why someone might want the man dead.

The children where no better. The eldest daughter had all but thrown herself at him naked, and he'd had to physically remove her from his bed more than once. The youngest girl had contented herself with clumsily stalking him while leaving horrible poetry and disturbing 'Dear Diary' letters at his door. The lord was apparently keen on reacquainting his bloodline with a real ninja, and fully encouraged them in their endeavors. Shikamaru had heroically not smothered the man in his sleep for it.

The man's sons were both worse and better than the daughters. The elder son had actually thrown himself naked at Shikamaru. Shikamaru could have failed his mission then and there if the guy hadn't decided to blame his broken nose on a bar fight. The youngest son had been the only one of them he could stand to be around for long. Well, had been until he'd tried to slip a tasteless poison into Shikamaru's tea that would've left him paralyzed and unconscious for a week.

Quite frankly Shikamaru didn't blame the guy for wanting to off his family, but the poison he took a little personally. There was no telling what his siblings would have done to him while he was unconscious.

He'd almost regretted stopping the son when his father had not so subtly tried to push one of his daughters onto him. Shikamaru shuddered remembering their hysterics when he'd flatly refused. To think he'd thought Ino and Haruno at their worst jealous fighting over Uchiha had been bad.

He'd come back from his mission wanting nothing more than to sit back, relax, and forget that the family even existed. He wasn't quite sure what the hell had possessed him to go home looking for that.

'You're tracking dirt on the floor, take out the trash, don't spoil your dinner, I don't care if you're hungry, if you don't like it you can get your own place!' Che. He really should've known better.

After being nagged by his mother for an hour straight he'd given up and left. Chouji had just left on his own mission which left him to go to their favorite barbeque place alone. Well, except for Ino who'd ranted through the entire meal about some new outfit Haruno was wearing. She'd been so angry she burnt most of her meal and stole his food. She didn't even notice when he finally left, he could still hear her ranting as he walked away.

With such a shitty reception home Shikamaru had done the only thing he could do. He retreated to his favorite roof for some peace, and promptly fell through it. His favorite spot creaked in alarming ways and a quick look inside the building was more than enough to inform him the rest of the roof would most likely follow within the month. Sighing Shikamaru had eased himself down onto the one semi-stable spot left.

Life seemed to have given him a break after that. He'd been watching the clouds for the past few hours without the slightest mishap or annoyance. The sky was clear, the neighborhood was quiet, the breeze was just strong enough to be extremely pleasant, and no one was around to bother him.

Shikamaru could've happily fallen asleep if he weren't so damned annoyed.

He had plenty of reasons to be annoyed. The freaky family he'd lost a week of his life to, his mother's constant nagging, Chouji's absence, Ino's Ino-ness, his growling stomach...the list could go on about all the reasons he had to be annoyed. What made him so annoyed was that he wasn't annoyed by any of the things on his rather long list of things to be annoyed at. Nothing that had happened to him during his long hellish week could compare to this last bit of unpleasantness Fate had decided to drop onto him.

Several hours had passed and the sun was now sinking under the horizon, and Shino hadn't shown up as usual.

Hadn't he just resolved that particular issue before leaving for his last mission? He should be happy. For once Shino wasn't there to silently goad him into thinking. For once he could lay still and simply watch the clouds. There was no reason for him to be annoyed at the other's absence.

Except that he was.

Conversation between them had always been brief and to the point. Mostly they had said nothing to each other. Logically there should be nothing for him to miss, but Shikamaru had gotten used to Shino's silent presence. Had come to expect it. He hadn't realized before that he'd, surprisingly, come to enjoy it.

Shikamaru hated it when his mind sprung little surprises like that on him. Especially since it meant that he wouldn't be getting any sort of rest until he had an explanation. Groaning, Shikamaru sat up and slowly cracked his neck.

He liked having Shino around.

Well, of all those who'd graduated from the academy he was the most mature, and one of the few Shikamaru could carry an actual reasonable conversation with. They'd had a few. Mostly about philosophy and life and why Kiba insisted on screaming at the top of his lungs every half hour or so. That had earned them several half growled threats from Kiba. Which only reinforced their shared theory that the Inuzuka's weren't quite human, and hence explained some of Kiba's stranger idiosyncrasies.

Now that he thought about it they'd had more than just a few conversations. Funny how he'd never really noticed before.

Shino never bothered him with petty things or annoyed him while he was watching the clouds. After the first month or so they'd fallen into a comfortable pattern of silence. The few times it was broken hadn't been as jarring or annoying as it should've been. It was something he'd only ever experienced with Chouji before.

Shikamaru didn't know much about Shino personally, but what he did know wasn't bad at all. So, yeah, he did enjoy having Shino around. He might even go so far as to say that they were friends. Not very close ones, but friends none the less.

He was annoyed that Shino wasn't there now.

Well, Chouji was gone on a mission for who knew how long leaving Shikamaru alone in this horrible week. Had Chouji been there he would've calmly served as a patient ear for Shikamaru's bitching, and then when it was done they would've gone out to eat and forget about it. That's what friends did after all.

Shino wasn't quite a friend but Shikamaru thought he could've told the other about his week. Maybe with less bitching and more silence, but it still would've made him feel better to know someone knew the troubles he'd just been through. It was quite possible that he could've even enticed Shino to go eat with him afterwards too.

He wanted to see Shino.

Shikamaru had no idea where that came from. It seemed to have snuck into his thoughts somewhere between being somewhat friends with the silent boy and being annoyed at him. Why the hell did Shino always make him think so damn much anyway?

Because he wanted to know.

With a heartfelt sigh Shikamaru fell back onto the roof watching the last rays of the sun turn the sky a nice shade of purple.

He wanted to know. He wanted to know more about Shino. He wanted to know why the other nin came to this particular roof all the time. He wanted to know what it was he liked to look at while he was here.

He wanted to hear Shino say he came to look at Shikamaru.

"So troublesome," the first stars slowly came into view as the sky darkened and Shino still didn't show up. Shikamaru stretched one last time before getting up. He was still annoyed with his life in general, but he felt oddly relaxed about it. Apparently this thing with Shino had been irritating him far more than he realized.

Maybe, Shikamaru thought, he would ask his questions again the next time they met. Maybe he wouldn't mind the answers Shino gave.

* * *

Fairady: Where the hell were you? 

Shino: ... _picks up a spider_

Fairady: Bastard! I'm very tempted to kick you. _looks at spider, shudders_ I hate you.

Shino: So you keep saying.

Shikamaru: Aren't we done with this yet?


	3. Troublesome

isclaimer: I neither own nor claim these characters or series. They're Kishimoto's, I'm just kidnapping 'em for a bit. 

Warning: Yaoi, don't like? Then scram.

Notes: Ok, now we can start getting some resolution here without me having to do research that brings up articles on Mr. Jackson. Come on, it's year one of the time skip! They're thirteen and are just starting to hit puberty, they're not going to just start fucking each other blind.

Never so clear, the sky  
by fairady

* * *

The sky was clear and absolutely devoid of any clouds for him to watch. Shikamaru decided it was time for him to call it a day. If he hurried he could even catch Asuma-sensei for a round of shougi. If nothing interesting crossed the sky in the next hour he would. If he wasn't too comfortable.

His jaw popped loudly as he yawned and slowly stretched. A few pops from his spine followed before he relaxed bonelessly on the roof. One upside to the rotting roof was that the surface under him was pretty soft. Asuma-sensei could wait for another day, Shikamaru felt like taking a nap.

Curling one arm under his head he shut his eyes to the world, only to open them up again when a shadow fell across him.

Shino stared down at him silently. At least he assumed the other was staring, it was hard to tell with those glasses sometimes.

"Hm," Shikamaru glanced at the new flak vest Shino wore. "You're a chuunin now."

"Ah," Shino simply said as he examined the newest set of holes in the roof.

"Congratulations," Shikimaru shifted to the side, and the roof creaked ominously beneath him. "Damn," there was no putting it off any longer. It was time for him to find another roof to visit. Sighing he scooted over as far as he was willing to risk before motioning for the other boy to sit next to him.

Shino sat without hesitation, his right shoulder pressing into Shikamaru's as they both tried to stay centered on the only stable spot left. The sun began to set and neither boy spoke or moved.

It was, Shikamaru reflected, quite possible that he was wrong. He didn't think he was wrong in his asumptions, but he had to be ready for the posibility that he was. He turned his head to look at Shino. This close to the other boy he could almost make out the shape of his eyes behind his ever present glasses. He wondered if he could convince Shino to take them off sometime.

No time like the present. Their roof was almost finished and he doubted they would be able to return to it again. It just didn't feel right to leave it without resolving anything. "Why the hell are you here, Shino?"

Shino cocked his head slightly and Shikamaru could just barely make out that he was looking at him, "I'm here to watch."

"Why?"

"Because I like to."

Shikamaru briefly hesitated, but no second thoughts appeared to be coming as he continued the conversation he'd started three months ago. "What are you watching?"

The othe boy turned his head and looked straight at Shikamaru, "You."

Shikamaru crossed his arms over his bent knees and leaned close enough to clearly see Shino's eyes through the glasses. "Why?"

"I already answered that."

"That wasn't a complete answer," Shikamaru snorted.

"You want one?" the faintest shift of Shino's face gave the impression that he was smiling behind the high collar of his jacket.

This time Shikamaru didn't bother to hesitate for second thoughts that weren't going to come, "Yes."

"Good," Shikamaru had forgotten how fast Shino was. It was an easy thing to do when the other would let his insects fight for him. Before he could say anything the other boy had leaned over and pressed a light kiss against the corner of Shikamaru's lips. "How about dinner first?"

"Sounds fine to me," Shikamaru felt the heat of a blush on his face as he stood up and fought the urge to touch his lips. There was no reason to get so worked up over a simple kiss like some infatuated girl.

Shino brushed some dust from his jacket and jumped to the next building. Stopping suddenly he turned back and firmly said, "We are not going to that Korean barbeque place."

"You're so troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled as he followed.

* * *

Fairady:...reticint bastard. Would it have hurt you to talk a little more?  
Shino: _shrugs  
_Kiba: Man, I'm so sorry she roped you into this.  
Shino: Personally, I think I got the better end of the deal amongst the two of us.  
Kiba: Huh? But you had to make out with Shikamaru!  
Shino: Kiss, and _points at the screen in front of Fairady_ still got the better deal.  
Fairady: _cackles insanely_ I'll get you my pretty, and you're little dog too! _joins the KibaxAkamaru(human form) mailing list  
_Kiba:...oh shit.


End file.
